CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M's Miles Gatewood converted a Harding turnover by hitting the game-winning 3-pointer with five seconds remaining to lift the Buffaloes to an 81-80 victory over the Bisons on Friday at the Pak-a-Sak Thanksgiving Classic.

Harding (3-2) held a 16-point lead with just over five minutes left in the game, but West Texas A&M scored 29 points in the game's final five minutes to earn the come-from-behind win. The Bisons will look to rebound Saturday at 2:30 p.m. against Eastern New Mexico.

Harding guard Blake McNair hit two free throws with 5:11 left to put the Bisons ahead 68-52. The free throws were the last two points of a 17-2 Harding run that lasted over five minutes. West Texas A&M responded with an 18-4 run over the next two minutes, and Buffalo guard David Chavlovich hit a jumper to cut the Harding lead to 74-73 with just 1:37 left.

McNair, who was 10 of 10 from the free-throw line in the second half, made six free throws over the next minute and gave Harding an 80-75 lead with 35 seconds remaining.

West Texas guard Tez Dumars, who had missed his first five 3-point attempts in the game, hit a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left to cut the Bison lead to two points. On Harding's final possession, West Texas knocked away an entry pass off the backboard to Gatewood, who raced down and hit the game-winning 3-pointer.

A turnover eventually determined the game, but West Texas' ability to covert Harding turnovers into points was a factor throughout. The Buffaloes (3-3) scored 32 points off 19 Bison turnovers. Harding scored only nine points off seven West Texas turnovers.

Chavlovich led all scorers with 33 points, hitting six of West Texas' 13 3-pointers.

Kavas made 8 of 9 free throws in the second half and led Harding with 21 points, his third 20-point game of the season. McNair scored 13 points. Jacob Gibson had 11 points, including Harding's first nine in the game. He made three early 3-pointers, including the 100th of his career. Freshman Jacob Roark scored a season-high 11 points as well.

Harding made eight of its first nine 3-pointers in the first half and led by as many as eight points.

A Johnthan McGee layup with 5:47 left in the half gave Harding a 33-28 lead, but the Bisons had turnovers on their next four possessions, and West Texas A&M scored seven straight points to take a 35-33 lead on a free throw by Gatewood with 2:41 left.

Roark's second 3-pointer of the half and the ninth for the Bisons with 1:35 left before halftime briefly gave Harding the lead back at 38-37. But Chavlovich hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the half and West Texas A&M led 40-38 at the break.